Reply #104: it's a modeled landscape, rendered on my computer...

[mike_c]

...to add the colors and textures, etc. The terrain was modeled with a program called World Machine and the landcape was rendered with Terragen. The actual render took about 12 hours at 3000 x 2250 pixels-- over 6 megapixels-- but this is a compressed image of a work in progress. The final render will be about three times that resolution-- photorealistic-- and will print at 24 inches x 18 inches or so. I'm still working on the sky and the lighting, mostly.

I'm glad you like it.